Published 6:00 am, Monday, January 22, 2018

DANBURY — A new partnership will bring new and specialized pediatric health care from the Connecticut Children's Medical Center to hospitals in Danbury, Norwalk and New Milford.

The Western Connecticut Health Network and the Hartford-based children's medical center — the only hospital in the state dedicated solely to children's care — announced the partnership early Monday.

Through the new program, WCHN's three hospitals will have round-the-clock access to CCMC’s specialized and subspecialized pediatric services, along with more pediatric consultations in the Danbury and Norwalk emergency departments, according to a news release.

“It’s a great institution to work with,” said Raul Arguello, the pediatric chair for Danbury and New Milford hospitals and one leader of the new partnership. “Over the years we’ve met more and more of their physicians and the community has been really impressed, so we just wanted to bring it to a new level.”

Connecticut Children's pediatric hospitalists - doctors who specialize in inpatient medicine — and physicians’ assistants began providing inpatient care at the beginning of the year for children at the health network's Danbury and Norwalk hospitals, and neonatologists will start caring for newborns at each hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit starting in July.

“There are still people who travel to Hartford, New Haven and New York City for this care, and that doens’t make sense to me … now we can provide these must-have services within our community hospitals,” Arguello said.

The program also creates a new team to lead local efforts at each hospital, including two physicians from Connecticut Children’s and three WCHN providers, along with a new consultant for each emergency department. The health network now also will adopt Connecticut Children's standardized best practices at each hospital.

The partnership will directly connect patients with an even broader range of specialists and subspecialists, both at in-person office hours at the WCHN locations and over video conferences, said Arguello and Alicia Briggs, another leader of the partnership and the interim pediatric chair for Norwalk Hospital.

“I think for some poeple in the Norwalk community, there was headscratching like, ‘Why are we doing this?’” Briggs said. “Especially when we have Yale and a lot of other children’s hospitals nearby. Why this alliance with Connecticut Children’s?

“The answer is that we are a network now and we needed to choose one network partner ... Despite Yale and Westchester being close by, we still have a need for some specialists in the area,” she continued. “If we can address those needs with a well-known children’s hospital, that is great.”

Although pediatric patients will remain Danbury and Norwalk hospital patients, they now have access to Connecticut Children’s main campus in Hartford if necessary, hospital spokeswomen said. Connecticut Children’s providers also will participate in the same WCHN health plans and will bill in-network.

In a way, the model is similar to a franchise like Starbucks, where a customer can expect the same quality and type of service no matter the location, said Dr. Anand Sekaran, division head of hospital medicine at Connecticut Children’s. Through the alliance, the group is expanding the franchise.

“Obviously what we provide is far more complicated than a cup of coffee,” he said. “But this is the level of quality and evidence-based practices that one should expect from any unit Connecticut Children’s is involved in.”